Star Wars: Lucasfilm Story Group Reveals Origins of 'The Last Jedi's Code Name "Space Bear"

Living in the age of the internet has forced movie studios to go to great lengths to deceive the general public, including shooting films under fake names as to not draw attention to themselves. In the case of The Last Jedi, the code name it was given was "Space Bear," a moniker that was honored by official cast and crew keepsakes. More than just two words thrown together, the Lucasfilm Story Group shared the significance of the name and how it connected to Luke Skywalker and Legends of the Fall.

"We were talking about how Luke had retreated and just taken himself out of the world and for some reason [it felt like] Legends of the Fall, when Tristan goes into the woods in the end," Rayne Roberts shared. "But then we were like, 'And then he gets mauled by a bear.' And then someone said, 'So Luke's like a space bear.'"

"Luke has to find his space bear, and then that became the code name for the movie," Pablo Hidalgo echoed. "[Writer/director] Rian [Johnson], I think, wrote on a whiteboard in the Star Wars-type title font, 'Space Bear,' and it was forever known internally as Space Bear."

"We'll let Rian spill some of those. Those are so fun and so his sense of humor," Hidaldo shared.

Discovering that a Star Wars film has a code name should come as no surprise, as the series first used a code name when filming Return of the Jedi. In hopes of deterring fans from discovering filming locations in California, ranging from Death Valley National Park to the redwood forests of Northern California, the film used the code name "Blue Harvest."